Therefore that Miracles have been, I do believe; that they may yet be wrought by the living, I do not deny: but have no confidence in those which are fathered on the dead; and this hath ever made me suspect the efficacy of reliques, to examine the bones, question the habits and appurtenances of Saints, and even of Christ himself. I cannot conceive why the Cross that _Helena_ found, and whereon Christ himself dyed, should have power to restore others unto life: I excuse not _Constantine_ from a fall off his Horse, or a mischief from his enemies, upon the wearing those nails on his bridle, which our Saviour bore upon the Cross in his hands. I compute among _Piæ fraudes_, nor many degrees before consecrated Swords and Roses, that which _Baldwyn_, King of _Jerusalem_, return'd the _Genovese_ for their cost and pains in his War, to wit, the ashes of _John_ the Baptist. Those that hold the sanctity of their Souls doth leave behind a tincture and sacred faculty on their bodies, speak naturally of Miracles, and do not salve the doubt. Now one reason I tender so little Devotion unto Reliques, is, I think, the slender and doubtful respect I have always held unto Antiquities: for that indeed which I admire, is far before Antiquity, that is, Eternity; and that is, God himself; who, though he be styled the ancient of days, cannot receive the adjunct of Antiquity, who was before the World, and shall be after it, yet is not older than it; for in his years there is no Climacter; his duration is Eternity, and far more venerable than Antiquity. SECT. 29 But above all things I wonder how the curiosity of wiser heads could pass that great and indisputable Miracle, the cessation of Oracles; and in what swoun their Reasons lay, to content themselves, and sit down with such a far-fetch'd and ridiculous reason as _Plutarch_ alleadgeth for it. The Jews, that can believe the supernatural Solstice of the Sun in the days of _Joshua_, have yet the impudence to deny the Eclipse, which every Pagan confessed, at his death: but for this, it is evident beyond all contradiction,[13] the Devil himself confessed it. Certainly it is not a warrantable curiosity, to examine the verity of Scripture by the concordance of humane history, or seek to confirm the Chronicle of _Hester_ or _Daniel_ by the authority of _Megasthenes_ or _Herodotus_. I confess, I have had an unhappy curiosity this way, till I laughed my self out of it with a piece of _Justine_, where he delivers that the Children of _Israel_ for being scabbed were banished out of _Egypt_. And truely since I have understood the occurrences of the World, and know in what counterfeit shapes, and deceitful vizards times present represent on the stage things past; I do believe them little more then things to come. Some have been of my opinion, and endeavoured to write the History of their own lives; wherein _Moses_ hath outgone them all, and left not onely the story of his life, but as some will have it, of his death also.